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Suffer not the children: HS Coach, Team accused of "bullying" after 91-0 rout

it's one of the nuances of sports; an unwritten rule, but a widely accepted understanding. once the win is assured, you try to play your second/third string to make the remainder of the game more equal and to give the scrubs a chance to get some game time experience
when a coach does that, and does not take advantage of every opportunity to run up the score, then he is found to have been a 'good sport'

Benching your starters when a win is assured makes good coaching sense but I don't think there is anything wrong in doing everything you can to win as long as you're not being a dick about it. Sportsmanship is a two way street and sometimes a losing team has to learn you occasionally get the snot beaten out of you but you still have to be a good sport about it. Regardless of how much better one team was then the other, the winning team should not have been expected to basically quit.
 
Benching your starters when a win is assured makes good coaching sense but I don't think there is anything wrong in doing everything you can to win as long as you're not being a dick about it. Sportsmanship is a two way street and sometimes a losing team has to learn you occasionally get the snot beaten out of you but you still have to be a good sport about it. Regardless of how much better one team was then the other, the winning team should not have been expected to basically quit.
[emphasis added by bubba]

i agree with you
as a coach, you tell your kids to always play their best
to always play hard
to never give up on a play

the coach would be a hypocrite to then say "take it easy, don't try your best",
when the kids are winning by a huge margin
 
Benching your starters when a win is assured makes good coaching sense but I don't think there is anything wrong in doing everything you can to win as long as you're not being a dick about it. Sportsmanship is a two way street and sometimes a losing team has to learn you occasionally get the snot beaten out of you but you still have to be a good sport about it. Regardless of how much better one team was then the other, the winning team should not have been expected to basically quit.

when I was in 7th grade. we played the "alternative" school in JV basketball. dudes had full beards and one guy even had a little kid in the stands. score was 60+ to zip at halftime. we cried and begged the coach not to make us go back out for the 2nd half. He told us to "man up". basically what you said. sometimes you get the crap beaten out of you and learning how to lose is just as important as learning how to win. final score was somewhere around 130-5. I hit a jumper from the top of the key (this was pre 3 pointer) and a free throw and another kid hit two free throws.
 
[emphasis added by bubba]

i agree with you
as a coach, you tell your kids to always play their best
to always play hard
to never give up on a play

the coach would be a hypocrite to then say "take it easy, don't try your best",
when the kids are winning by a huge margin

spot on.
 
I recommend that everybody who sees this "father" in the streets give him a wedgie. :mrgreen:
 
Why would playing one's first-string players be considered unsportsman-like? Games are meant to be played to the best of your ability.
It's a two fold thing.
1) There is no competitiveness between the two first teams, so to give the other team a sporting chance you pull your first stringers out to give play time to the second string, if they are still too much you go to your third string.
2) Second and third string teams work very hard, so they get some time to play, and the game "should" be more competitive at that point.
3) Baseball/softball are the only sports that don't allow a player back in, so if the other team bridges the gap in the sports where you can bring the first string back in there is no risk of giving the game away.
4) Second and third string players do have a chance to play at some point if a first string player gets injured, so it doesn't hurt to get them some field time in case they should be needed as fill ins.
5) No one wants a game so lopsided that people get embarrassed, it doesn't really do much for the winning team's confidence, and it invites a more powerful team to do the same thing and humiliate yours if the tables ever get turned, so it's just best to follow the unwritten rules.
 
The "parent" filing the complaint should be flogged in public for stupidity. Seriously, what kind of f-ing lesson does this teach your kid?!?! If you don't like getting beaten, try to get who beat you in some kind of trouble. If I was the coach of the kid who's parent this is, I would tell the parent he is no longer welcome at the games. While enforceable, the message might just sink in.
 
"Bully" is a silly term to apply here.

But if they had issues with it being "unsportsmanlike" - then they should have called the game of DURING THE GAME.

How could it be unsportsmanlike to win?

Maybe the shame of such a loss for the other team will make them practice harder to win next time.

The answer is not to tell the winning team they did something wrong because they are better players.
 
I never faced that in football, but when I was a teenager I played tournament baseball and I remember not liking the ten run rule that they had, where if one team was up by ten in the 6 or whatever inning that the game was over. Even when my team was getting beaten really bad like that I always thought "shouldn't we try to get as much practice as possible against teams like this?". The parents would always get mad if another team were trying to run up the score once they were past ten, and though I hated losing, I don't ever remember getting pissed. Learn your lesson, you're never gonna win them all, play better next time.

Yes you should but that might hurt somebodies feelings. We can't have that can we?
 
when I was in 7th grade. we played the "alternative" school in JV basketball. dudes had full beards and one guy even had a little kid in the stands. score was 60+ to zip at halftime. we cried and begged the coach not to make us go back out for the 2nd half. He told us to "man up". basically what you said. sometimes you get the crap beaten out of you and learning how to lose is just as important as learning how to win. final score was somewhere around 130-5. I hit a jumper from the top of the key (this was pre 3 pointer) and a free throw and another kid hit two free throws.

Just curious. Did you feel great about the fact that you were able to do something nobody else on your team was able to do? I mean score against a great team?
 
I recommend that everybody who sees this "father" in the streets give him a wedgie. :mrgreen:

If this does any permanant damage to the coaches reputation, like spoiling his record with the complaint, he should be sued for damages for the maliciousness of the complaint.

It obviously wasn't bullying but the parnet knew the complaint had to go through oficial channels and there would be paperwork on it forever saying the coach was a bully.
 
Just curious. Did you feel great about the fact that you were able to do something nobody else on your team was able to do? I mean score against a great team?

dude, the way our team and fans reacted, you would have thought I hit a buzzer beater to win the NBA title.
 
dude, the way our team and fans reacted, you would have thought I hit a buzzer beater to win the NBA title.

Well at least on a personal level, it was important to finish that game so you and the fans could feel that way. There is something to be said for doing a good job even if you lose.
 
I feel so sorry for the kid of the parent that filed this claim. How humiliating.
 
Well at least on a personal level, it was important to finish that game so you and the fans could feel that way. There is something to be said for doing a good job even if you lose.

it builds character.
 
it builds character.

The problem is that I don't think people care about character anymore.

What they consider important is what they are feeling, which I consider not relevant.
 
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